A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, one is required to put pieces together in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct solution of the puzzle. There are different types of puzzles for different ages, such as crossword puzzles, word-search puzzles, number puzzles, or logic puzzles.

Puzzles are often devised as a form of entertainment but they can also arise from serious mathematical or logistical problems. In such cases, their solution may be a significant contribution to mathematical research.[1]

Solutions of puzzles often require the recognition of patterns and the creation of a particular kind of order. People with a high level of inductive reasoning aptitude may be better at solving such puzzles than others. But puzzles based upon inquiry and discovery may be solved more easily by those with good deduction skills. Deductive reasoning improves with practice.

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The 1989 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary dates the word puzzle (as a verb) to the end of the 16th century. Its first documented use (to describe a new type of game) was in a book titled The Voyage of Robert Dudley...to the West Indies, 1594–95, narrated by Capt. Wyatt, by himself, and by Abram Kendall, master (published circa 1595). The word later came to be used a noun.

The word puzzle comes from pusle "bewilder, confound" which is a frequentive of the obsolete verb pose (from Medieval French aposer) in sense of "perplex". The meaning of the word as "a toy contrived to test one's ingenuity" is relatively recent (within mid-19th century).

Metagrobology is the study of puzzles and originates from old French word metagrobolise which first appeared as part of a translation of the works of the French satirist François Rabelais. Rabelais’s version of the term (métagabouliser) was a now-obsolete French verb that meant “to puzzle, baffle or mystify”. It can be used in conversation such as the statement "I am metagrobolised (e.g. perplexed)." The word was first coined by Rick Irby in the early 1970s.[contradiction] Metagrobolise' first appeared in English texts in the mid-17th century. In its first appearances, it was part of a translation of the works of the French satirist Francois Rabelais.

Recently,[when?] the noun Metagrobologist has been adopted by a number of puzzlers[who?] as a term for “one who does and makes puzzles”.[citation needed]

The first jigsaw puzzle was created around 1760, when John Spilsbury, a British engraver and cartographer, mounted a map on a sheet of wood, which he then sawed around the outline of each individual country on the map. He then used the resulting pieces as an aid to the teaching of geography.

After becoming popular among the public, this kind of teaching aid remained the primary use of jigsaw puzzles until about 1820.[2]

By the early 20th century, magazines and newspapers had found that they could increase their readership by publishing puzzle contests.